Non-payment (so far at least) of Premium Bond prize money won this month!

cricidmuslibale

Hello everyone!

I wonder if anyone can help me with this:- For the first time ever since I first saved into Premium Bonds (more than 2 years) the prize money (£75 from 3 x £25 prizes) that I was fortunate to win this February has not yet been paid into my nominated bank account, a NS&I Direct Saver. In all previous months when I've won any prize money this money has been paid into my Direct Saver approx. 1 week after the draw has taken place i.e. within 7 working days. On this basis I expected £75 to be paid into my Direct Saver on either Monday or Tuesday this week and certainly by Wednesday at the latest. I've checked again this Friday evening and this money is still yet to be paid! Has anyone else had a delay this month in receiving their prize payment(s) into their nominated bank account and if so, or indeed if not, what do you recommend I do about this to sort things out please?

N.B. My father was also fortunate to win prize money from Premium Bonds this month and his prize payment appeared as expected in his nominated bank account four days ago (i.e. on Monday)! 

Superscrooge

My prize payments were also paid into my bank account on Monday

strawb_shortcake

Not this month but it has been maybe a week later in the past 

cricidmuslibale

Thank you Superscrooge and Thank you annabanana82! Do any of you think it would be worthwhile me phoning NS&I if the prize money I'm due has not appeared in my Direct Saver by the end of the business day on Monday, please?

cricidmuslibale

Latest Update: As of this evening, nearly a week after my post above, after 2 phone calls to NS&I customer services and 10 days after I should have received the £75 prize money I have definitely won in February's draw (I have the 3 winning bond numbers to prove it), my nominated bank account, an NS&I Direct Saver STILL hasn't received the £75 that is due to me! I'm going to call NS&I once more tomorrow if the prize money still hasn't arrived but in short this is simply not good enough and I really should not have to waste any more time and spend any more money on phone calls chasing prize money that is owing to me and that most other prize winners received at the start of last week!

Any suggestions as to how I should proceed from here to resolve this are most welcome!

lindos90

Theres usually some delay, but not usually this long tbh.  Not sure how far you would get with ringing them as I understand they are inundated with work, and their CS has taken a battering with people investing when bank interest rates plummeted last year, and more recently with lots if people with withdrawing due to the changes in the prize fund 🙁

You say it’s a transferred to your nominated bank account, you then mention your direct saver account with the NS&I, (which is not technically a bank) if it’s being transferred internally though, there’s even less excuse for the delay.
I know that it doesn’t help with this month, but opting for reinvestment into pbs might be an option to consider. 

Have you had an email or message on your NS&I dashboard confirming the win? 

cricidmuslibale

Thank you very much for your response, lindos90!  Yes my Direct Saver account has always been my nominated account for any Premium Bond prize money I'm fortunate to win and in all previous months when I've won before this month there has never been any delay in my prize money arriving in my Direct Saver. There's very little if any excuse for an 11 day delay (and counting) especially when as you say it involves an internal rather than an external transfer of three £25 prizes.

Opting for reinvestment into Premium Bonds isn't possible for me as I have always held the maximum £50k in order to maximise the chances of winning in each month.

No, I would normally get at least one and usually both of an email and a message on my NS&I dashboard but neither have arrived this month; however the Customer Service Agent at NS&I with whom I've very recently spoken on the phone has confirmed that I have definitely won three £25 prizes this month and this money definitely should have been transferred to my Direct Saver several days before today! I've been informed that for some reason known only to the back office at NS&I my winning Bond numbers were somehow missed out when it came to transferring prize money c.2 weeks ago! Obviously this is not at all acceptable but the CSA I spoke with today has been very apologetic on NS&I's behalf and hopefully at long last everything is now being rectified!

ranciduk

I wonder how many people who never check to see if they’ve won - have won prizes, that they never got!?

Pretty scandalous really

eskbanker

ranciduk said:

I wonder how many people who never check to see if they’ve won - have won prizes, that they never got!?

Pretty scandalous really

According to https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/premium-bonds/#tips-12 there are about £69m of unclaimed prizes, and the earlier https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/08/1-6-million-premium-bond-prizes-unclaimed---check-if-you-ve-won/ implies that this would equate to roughly 1.8m prizes.

However, that's probably a different pot from OP's situation where prizes were seemingly not notified or issued due to a fault at NS&I - whether that signifies a 'scandal' would depend on how widespread that issue is....

lindos90

cricidmuslibale said:

Thank you very much for your response, lindos90!  Yes my Direct Saver account has always been my nominated account for any Premium Bond prize money I'm fortunate to win and in all previous months when I've won before this month there has never been any delay in my prize money arriving in my Direct Saver. There's very little if any excuse for an 11 day delay (and counting) especially when as you say it involves an internal rather than an external transfer of three £25 prizes.

Opting for reinvestment into Premium Bonds isn't possible for me as I have always held the maximum £50k in order to maximise the chances of winning in each month.

No, I would normally get at least one and usually both of an email and a message on my NS&I dashboard but neither have arrived this month; however the Customer Service Agent at NS&I with whom I've very recently spoken on the phone has confirmed that I have definitely won three £25 prizes this month and this money definitely should have been transferred to my Direct Saver several days before today! I've been informed that for some reason known only to the back office at NS&I my winning Bond numbers were somehow missed out when it came to transferring prize money c.2 weeks ago! Obviously this is not at all acceptable but the CSA I spoke with today has been very apologetic on NS&I's behalf and hopefully at long last everything is now being rectified!

Sorry I didn’t realise you had the maximum 🙂. Glad you got through to someone and you will get your money. I used to have my money split between the direct saver and PBs but when the interest rate dropped I moved it all across, only £1 in there now to keep it open. 

Makes you wonder about the folk who don’t/can’t check, who could be missing winnings due to a clerical error! 

RetSol

I won a (small) PB prize in the March draw and am still waiting for it to appear in my nominated bank account.  Judging by your experience, @lindos90, I may need to chase it with CS eventually.  I think that I will leave it for a few days.